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The Canberra Times

National

Chris Dutton, Lucy Bladen

Top 100 ChooseCBR businsses named after govt backdown

Chemist Warehouse was No. 3 on the list of the top 100 businesses involved in the ChooseCBR scheme. Picture: Karleen Minney

The ACT government has caved into pressure and revealed the names of the top 100 businesses in the ChooseCBR scheme.

ACT Business Minister Tara Cheyne released the list on Friday morning, just days after she said the business names were being treated as "commercial in confidence" until the government sought further legal advice.

The Daily Market City and Gungahlin was the biggest winner from the voucher scheme, which included the option to use $10, $20 or $50 discount vouchers. The grocery store claimed 3.3 per cent of all vouchers in the scheme, which would be close to 2000 vouchers.

Ms Cheyne has been under pressure to reveal more details about the scheme, which struggled with technical issues before relaunching last week.

More than $1.6 million worth of vouchers were redeemed in 24 hours, exhausting the allocated $2 million scheme.

Ms Cheyne said 19 businesses redeemed more than 500 vouchers, but did not make the names public at the time. However, the government was able to release the names after seeking legal advice which said this was allowed.

Ms Cheyne also hit-out at The Canberra Times for reporting long lines of customers using the vouchers at Chemist Warehouse. Ms Cheyne has now revealed Chemist Warehouse was No. 3 on the top 100 list of businesses.

Following the release of the business names, the ACT opposition renewed calls for the auditor-general to examine the scheme.

"The list raises more serious questions which can only properly be answered by the Labor-Greens government calling in the auditor-general," opposition business spokeswoman Leanne Castley said.

"The auditor-general must scrutinise the entire scheme, in particular transactions that took place over a 25-hour period."

Ms Cheyne announced earlier this week the government would commission an independent review of the scheme, she said she had written to the ACT Auditor-General Michael Harris to inform him of this review.

ACT Business Minister Tara Cheyne. Picture: Karleen Minney

There have been widespread concerns about the legitimacy of the government's program, which was put in place to encourage Canberrans to increase their spending at local businesses.

It was revealed earlier this week that three businesses had been excluded from the scheme because of a pattern of "questionable" transactions in a three-week December trial of the scheme. More than $5000 of transactions was identified as suspicious across the businesses.

Ms Cheyne conceded the government had no way of verifying improper use of the vouchers if people used multiple phone numbers to sign up to the scheme.

The voucher program was first launched on June 10, but was shutdown when businesses and customers reported issues.

It relaunched last week and customers were quick to swoop, providing a $3.2 million injection to the economy in a 24-hour period.

The vouchers were being used at $1100 per minute and more than $70,000 per hour last Friday.

If the 19 businesses which used more than 500 vouchers were operating for 20 hours of the scheme, they would have been processing five vouchers every 12 minutes they were open.

The government says 59,000 vouchers were redeemed by 30,000 customers. The average redemption was $34.

"These numbers show extraordinary demand from consumers - and are testament to the enthusiasm of local businesses who embraced the scheme, marketed it, and encouraged old and new customers to come in and spend-and to spend more," the government said.

The Daily Market City and Gungahlin were the top users, accounting for 3.3 per cent of all voucher use, with the Hualong Supermarket second and Chemist Warehouse at the Belconnen Markets third.